How ironic that during a discussion about Finite vs Infinite mindset as part of “living life” and “leading organizing Just Cause missions”, that yet another Western, likely overly-reliant-on-religious-beliefs interviewer, does NOT see what’s really being suggested by author Simon Sinek?
Please pay special attention to the 2:50 minute mark. WHO “told you” this is your 1 and Only life? Isn’t it apparent, that we are born through our parents, into a “current scenario IN play”? We are born into wildly different scenarios of stability? Just before that question, I suspect in an attempt to avoid a rabbit hole discussion on Faith-blinding Belief systems, Simon side-steps the comment on “WHO establishes the rules of the game” asked by the leftmost interviewer …
… the rules of the Game are established … it’s a journey … [enjoying] the PlayING of the Game is the point” – Sinek Bravo Simon, I could not agree more!
Let’s keep on PlayingItForward.Life
That IS the point, reflected by Life’s Design and Goal, of Existing and Knowing it. Perhaps this is apparent only to those who dis-cover the Play in progress through vulnerable admission of “i Know Nothing” and set out to question and learn through direct, Shared experience?
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The ignore-ant alternative is to continue trying to Control and Dominate the game – which creates so much suffering – culminating often in final admission and awareness of “having been fooled by the game” … too often from a painful deathbed admission to someone they’ve hurt deeply.
Instead, the ‘enlightened’ person finds ways to effortlessly Flow with the Game’s “river current”, gently and Sincerely redirecting people, as one would in Sailing, contrasted with Rowing the Boat upstream by brute force (finite, fixed mindset). No spooky, mystical knowledge or practices required. Enlightenment comes from admission of “i really don’t know”, and setting out to find a Shared understanding with Others (who deny and affirm beliefs vs reality), amidst a dynamically evolving Shared Reality that attempts to test, change and witness the adaptations OF Life’s response (seeing how social systems norms, rules adapt, thus proving they were even there originally – truly a “Scientific Method” approach).
If the vibe of competition dissipates, does the Game, and Life as we know it, disappear all together? What might that “transformation” Feel like?
No, Life does not disappear. Life as “hologram” or “world for just one self” are yet again Beliefs in an unsharable reality.
My lifetime of Direct, Shared observations of Life, with and through painful Denials by Other and loving affirmations from Other, is that …
… we are conformed to the Rules of the Current Game in progress by life’s design, playing it forward, perpetuated through the current Guardians of the Play. How well informed are those Guardians?
“Let not the right hand know what the left hand does, for it [was conditioned intentionally] knows not what it does nor why [by design]”. The so-called Chosen People may indeed be the all-spark that Ends the days of [self-critical] judgement BY EACH self … my what Pain is required though, to ensure the evolutionary Pivot happens though?
Eastern cultures historically, but less so each day – due to Global Economics and Westernization via “Time is Money Capitalism” – eventually Allowed in the youth, letting them know about the Game, why the rules are such, Offering them a chance to affect and possibly Change the rules of the macro-level Game. There are games unique to each social system. There are sub-systems within systems, everywhere. My what a tangled web we weave, Playing Hide, then Seek.
In the West, we are not allowed in on the secret about Reality. We are not initiated as part of “becoming an adult”, by our Guardians, largely because they were not allowed in either. The Catholic and Christian systems seemingly, intentionally, disallow awareness on this level. Possibly for the sake of Control? What is the basis of that control, Guilt and Shame? Followers of Brene’ Brown are zeroing in at this point. ; )
Not many are traditionally practicing devout ___ anymore. My own parents needed to ‘Confess their sins to a Monarch King of all Kings’, which we can only gain access to, through the monarchy structure of the Church. Huh!? How odd that a Democratic Nation (USA) founded on a Republic mindset of “decentralized shared ownership” Of the People, By the People, For the People, has a belief-based system as Monarchy – the Big Boss who hands out final Judgement and Sentence? One Nation, under God … this has been under substantial challenge since the turn of this century.
No, I’m not suggesting yet more bullshit Conspiracy Theory. Nope. You and i, all of us Together … WE have created the variations of Play in which we place our selves, through our children. It is a choice though, whether to Seek shared understanding [rather than pure imagination in mind-of-one-self-alone] through direct experience of the PlayING that surrounds us, exploring and challenging ‘it’ in Sincere ways. Otherwise, we just Assume we know everything/most things and mindlessly conform in far too Serious ways (adherence to the rules of the game as ‘a player in a Fixed/Finite position’).
Do you see the Conditioning we’ve experienced, subconsciously, in the West? The social hypnosis encourages adherence to the ethical conduct defined by those “in power”.
Every social system has its own conditioning, for sure. I may have offended you. That’s not my intention. Our reality is connected, whether we opt out of Sharing That or not. Your pain is my pain. Your bliss is my own. I only challenge Belief, so that together, WE might “figure this out”. ; )
To better understand the version of reality we reside within, we must compare it to something ‘else’ that is radically different from all that we [think we] know currently. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism (Zen-Buddhism) systems of Observation are about as different from Catholicism and Christianity as we can find.
You may not know, being raised in the West, how the East views ALL of life’s design and “activity”, as Sincerest Play by a universal Godhead, intentionally getting Lost in all of us, as split manifestations of it’s self – The ultimate Self. And that each of us, ride the Wheel of lives several times … research Karma on your own, but be very suspicious of the sources you choose to learn from.
Instead, perhaps …
We Play Finite Games, within an infinitely Flowing reality. Whether we are aware of That, or accept That, is inconsequential. The only “improvement” to be had is Awareness.
Our Faith and Belief systems are radically different across infinitely evolving Life. Context is King, not the current Ruler of that Period! Be weary of who approves Interpretations of social doctrines, toward what goals of that time period. What worked in the past, likely no longer works. The doctrines which try to help us remember Why the social system came into BEing, and how best to “keep it alive”, use the language of the period, full of contextual, cognitive traps!
Western systems are quite different from and oddly quite similar to Eastern systems of Observing and Reflection, each with their practices of Initiation and Integration, with undetected Contradictions which serve as the basis of the practices of “quieting Mind, Heart and re integrating Body”, typically as part of escaping another cycle of Life (east) or ensuring infinite happiness in Heaven vs Hell in Life #2 (The Final Life, so appealing to misinformed Easterners) as part of Western thinking.
So fascinating how we cannot detect the contradictions and hypocrisies within our own social system, nor the radical differences and paradoxical similarities of other systems we hope enable our escape!
In the USA, you only have one life to live, which is monitored daily towards a final judgement upon the reclaim of the Body containing the soul, which is bound for either [more] Pain or possibly [first time ever] Bliss, [in a Heavenly state of co existing and Knowing your origin]. Juxtapose with the Hindu’s fading premise of yet another round of Life as human, the context of which is set by the Karma from the sum of all prior lifetimes. The east hopes to have a way out of ‘hell’ and the ‘west’ is desperately trying to avoid going there, not yet realizing, they may already be there. See how “conversely similar”, to coin a phrase, these systems are? Towards what purpose? Conforming and committing us to ensure that we continue to Play, according to a presupposed Finite “One Life to Live” OR “yet another lifetime around”, within each social system’s Rules of Engagement? Social Hypnosis is the referee of each Game.
Incrementally over “our lifetimes” – what i prefer to refer to as “Recursive, recurring Patterns within Existing”, all systems of Belief are becoming irrelevant, with less interest in either Playing or observing the game as a patron [despite having more cable channels dedicated to Sports].
What is really interesting, is when we switch systems and yet adopt both the benefits AND traps / pain of those social systems. We contradict our escape of pain/anxiety with our own “pay off” promised as part of the system we were born IN to and through (guardians/parents). The Christian who rejects final judgment, seeks escape with Buddhist counter-corrective practices and eventual return thru Zen’s resignation. Observing the Taoist’s inescapable realm of yin/yang as synonymous to Hell vs Heaven, he/she finds relief in possible exit from Yin/Yang through an unclear promise of Returning Lives based on Karma (which he/she can grasp as lighter version of judgement day). He takes on Yogic practices of meditation, intended for the Hindu brought up in the Wheel of Samsara, and simultaneously adopts the premise of Karma entrapment! Wow! Funny?
Can you see how Christianity could be holistically adopted by an expatriate Hindu, or dispassionate Buddhist as well, with both the trap and the promise of reconciliation? Why don’t we question the rationale of the switch from one game to yet another? We don’t know any better. The guardians of the Playbook haven’t let us in on the type of game we’re in. Often, we don’t even realize we’re IN a Playful reality (game with a “small g” as Simon deflected).
Need an example? Watch reality crash down around a professional athlete that has to retire suddenly. They sure didn’t think of their sport as a game. It was “Serious business” for them anyway. They are very disoriented, coming to realize quickly, they were in a game, taking it all too seriously. They often cite “entering reality for the 1st time” as part of helping with child raising and participating (first time?) with normal citizen tasks.
Of course, for every opinion expressed in language, of which all languages reside in Duality, there is an equally opposing counter perspective (based on one view as “wrong” thus making counter point “right”).
I’d lovingly suggest, that we lovingly Play Finite games, while infinitely trying to find ways to Enjoy the Play of Life, getting wonderfully and intentionally lost in it all, AS The Creator.
What else might we do with all that Omnipotence? How boring to be able to predict the outcomes of Play every time? Nope. We give up control to something called a Free-Willing self, yet telling each self, that it has no free will in some sub systems, and then intentionally become frustrated with all those manifestations of selves, as they unpredictably evolve the rules of the game in progress. Surprised yet? Bored yet? Time to change the rules, or the entire Game?
So David, you’re a Buddhist or a Taoist then? Nah. I reject all labels and attempts to categorize, any-Thing. WE comprise everything through Inclusion and Adaptation, and become no-thing through introspection and analysis. The more we observe down and within self, finding there to be no-thing (Patterns as Form, vs material “matter/stuff”, thank you Science for finally affirming this), the more compelled we eventually become to ask the opposite question, synthesizing “what are we part OF?”.
I’d just like ‘us’ to question and seek, together, what WE have hidden above US, That’s all. Less obsession with the microscope and more with the telescope – and NOT in search of Aliens! LOL
We love to label Things and indirectly point to those categories as a way of analyzing Life (to certain ‘death’). You can’t label and categorize Every-Thing, which is what you and this i, are, in my very humble opinion formed through y’all, in shared direct observation and reflection. But don’t lazily adopt my personal experience to be your own as mere prejudiced (presuming Other’s experiences and thus Knowings, to be your own) belief … instead, figure it out directly your-self please?
Treat lovingly all you witness as 'other' in Life, because That's You!
The GoldenRule, ReImagined